Computing systems have made significant contributions toward the advancement of modern society and are utilized in a number of applications to achieve advantageous results. Numerous devices, such as desktop personal computers (PCs), laptop PCs, tablet PCs, netbooks, smart phones, servers, and the like have facilitated increased productivity and reduced costs in communicating and analyzing data in most areas of entertainment, education, business, and science. One common aspect of computing devices is the automated volume testing of the computing devices and/or components thereof.
Referring to FIG. 1 an Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) framework according to the conventional art is shown. The ATE framework is configured to provide for the functional testing of a plurality of Device Under Test (DUTs). The ATE framework can include a host controller 105, a communication backplane 1110, one or more tester units 115-115m, and one or more device interface boards 120a-120m. The communication backplane 110 can be configured to communicatively coupled the one or more tester units 115-115m to the host controller 105. The one or more device interface boards 120a-120m can be configured to couple a plurality of DUTs 125a-125n to the respective one or more tester units 115a-115m via connectors 130a-130n of the DUTs 125a-125n. The connectors 130a-130n can include one or more standard serial communication links, such as Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface (SAS) or Serial AT Attachment (SATA) communication.
The one or more tester units 115a-115m are configured to generate test patterns and perform complex testing processes on the DUTs and gather test result from the DUTs, and process the results. However, some customers do not require such a level of complex and exhaustive testing. Accordingly, there is a continuing need from an Automated Test Equipment (ATE) framework that provides for simpler less expensive testing of DUTs.